Engineers Show Us How to Build A New Car From the Ground Up Rose Hulman FSAE Car Judy Warner: Tell us about your team, what you make, and where you compete. Anthony Lin: We are the Rose Grand Prix Engineering team from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and we design, build, and race a Formula style (open wheel open cockpit) race car from scratch every year. This year marks our 7th year in the competition with RGP-7 (name of our new car). We compete in the Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Read Article Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Tips from Electronics Expert Duane Benson Judy Warner: Duane, please share briefly about your background in the electronics industry. Duane Benson: I first burned my fingers with a soldering iron when I was about fourteen. Though I was formally trained and started my career in software development, my first love has always been electronics. My early hardware projects included an electronic stethoscope used to listen through walls for termites chewing on wood, and a caller ID device Read Article How to Automate PCB Design Effectively Become an expert PCB Designer when you use Altium Designer software. Learn how to automate as much as possible! Click the PDF above to read more about How to Automate PCB Design Effectively in this presentation overview. Or view the original content here: How to Automate your Component Management Process How to Automate your High-speed Design Process How to Automate your Design Review Process Read Article PCB Design Errors Reduce Errors in your PCB designs. This presentation will discuss multiple ways good PCB design can help manage errors on your board. It covers tips and tricks for basics and beyond. Click the PDF above to read more about PCB Design Errors in this presentation. Or view the original content here: Preventing Critical PCB Contamination: There Goes the Boom Is It Hot In Here or Is That Your PCB Shorting? Common Causes of PCB Shortages What's Worse Read Article Costed BOM: Expedite Cost Savings with Continually Updated BOM Pricing Knowing your market and providing supply for your customers is an art. Purveyors of commodities have long been negotiating with their clients to plan supply chain needs. Stock becomes more desirable as supplies diminish, especially if demand grows and the need is great. If need and demand remain robust, pricing holds and suppliers make money while offering fair deals to their customers. Electronic component vendors carefully plan their offerings Read Article PCB Routing Angle Myths: 45-Degree Angle Vs 90-Degree Angle There is nothing wrong with a healthy debate, whether it’s related to determining the worst pizza topping or the best solder mask. In the PCB editor world, a debate that plagues designers and researcher alike revolves around PCB routing angles. Should copper tracks of a PCB be routed at a 45-degree angle vs 90 degree angle PCB? With today’s equipment, however, it turns out that it usually doesn’t matter which angle you use. By utilizing modern Read Article Use Unique ID EEPROM in Your Embedded System to Prevent Design Counterfeiting There’s a saying that smart people don’t always finish the race first. In college, I remember some classmates copying my assignments, only to end up getting better scores than I did. Being smart didn’t necessarily guarantee me the top grades in college and watching others achieve success based on my ideas became demoralizing. The business world is similar; it isn’t uncommon for companies to copy concepts that work well for their competitors and Read Article Internal Versus External Surge Protectors: What’s Best for Total PCB Protection Whether its internal or external surge protection, your electronics device needs something to keep it healthy throughout the lifespan. Read Article Small Electronic Circuit Design Demands Large Amounts of Attention With new taxes regularly introduced to the rising costs of living, it’s only a matter of time before consumers suffer from chain effects. It gets to my nerves when my favorite local restaurants increase prices or resort to reducing their serving size. Of course, I would prefer for things to stay the same but I can at least satisfy my hunger by paying a little extra. In electronics, PCB designs are also getting smaller, just like my favorite plate Read Article How to Use Test Points on PCB | Altium Designer Maybe it’s because of the old memories of pop quizzes in grade school, but it seems like no one really likes the idea of “testing”. Just as the school children in “A Christmas Story” reacted badly to having to write a theme, people all over the world usually react just as negatively to the idea of taking a test. And yet, if you are going to be a circuit board designer, you are going to have to learn how to use a PCB test point. The good news is Read Article Don’t Worry Over Your PCB Layout Files ASCII Dance, Waltz with Unified Tools Although competitive partner dancing looks complicated, the technique behind the art is precise. It is nothing like the PCB layout files ASCII dance. Dancers move their feet uniformly in intricate patterns set to the musical beat. If the technique is flawed, steps are missed, and feet collide, ruining the dance. Error messages are indications of missing steps in PCB layout software. When placing and routing components in the software, error Read Article Computer Fault Finding Checklist: Troubleshoot a Faulty Embedded System in Your PCB Kids these days are much smarter than we were. When I was six, all I cared about was watching Sesame Street every evening. My son, on the other hand, regularly searches for his favorite cartoons on Youtube and asks for the correct phrases to type in to receive the exact results he’s looking for. Even at such a young age, he understands that asking smart questions leads to quicker, and more efficient, solutions. Although finding the right terms to Read Article Embedded System Implementation and Testing Before Commission Embedded systems and PCBs in these systems need to be thoroughly tested before deployment. Read Article How to Become a Freelance PCB Designer and What You Need to Know to Thrive If your career as a hardware engineer is getting stagnant, you may be tempted to switch careers or turn into a freelancer. After all, the major difference between working full-time and freelancing is not having the 9-to-5 routine and being able to work on projects while sipping a piña colada at the beach. When you’re equipped with the top-notch design skills and knowledge of a hardware designer, what could go wrong? Freelancing as a PCB designer Read Article First Impressions Migrating to Altium Designer 18 Updating a software package is risky business – and not just because of new bugs that could be added. It’s also possible that a perfectly working new feature looks like a bug from the perspective of your workflow. I’ve recently upgraded to Altium Designer® (AD18) and released a new design with it, finding a few nuances. And not just the new color scheme (FYI: AD18 doesn’t support the legacy skin colors, but may in future versions). Overall, the Read Article Soothe PCB Schematic Library Management Pains with Straightforward Software Outdated schematic library management processes cause a large bottleneck for the design group. These processes are often based on tools that are not up-to-date with current design methodologies and technologies and are therefore limited in what they can do. In the same way that a compact car isn’t going to be able to pull a heavy trailer, using an outdated library management system isn’t going to be able to handle the heavy work-load either Read Article Ducks in a Row: Process Control and Document Traceability in One Place Louis Pasteur captured the essence of complicated endeavors when he stated that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” Don’t miss opportunities for excellence when faced with complex tasks. Designing and building printed circuit boards and their assemblies is a complex task, made up of many meticulous endeavors. You could say that unified PCA documentation and communication favors successful outcomes when building products. Document types and Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page147 Current page148 Page149 Page150 Page151 Page152 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More